Here comes a few recaps from my participation at the international woodcarving convention, Täljfest, at Sätergläntan (Dalarna, Sweden) this summer. It was three absolutely brilliant days. I held two demonstrations in ”carving big spoons”. The second demonstration I held was quite memorable, because Jögge and Wille Sundqvist were watching the demonstration. Wille especially is a legend when it comes to carving with knife and axe, and Jögge is also a well known and recognized person in the woodcarvingsociety.
Wille filled in with his knowledge and experience during the demonstration and discussed different aspects of spooncarving, axes etc. with the group of audience. And I got to tell the story about when I was a student at Vindelns folkhögskola and just before we graduated after two years we visited Wille Sundqvist in Bjurholm. We had a kind of workshop at Willes and at the end of the day he held a short speach and told us ”Vindeln is a good school and a good education, but you can not carve spoons”. He also had an opinion about our skills at sharpening tools.
Anyway, the demonstration with Wille in combination with the opportunity to meet with so many other great carvers from around the world got the result that I left Sätergläntan overwhelmed with inspiration and – hope.
Ever since Täljfest I have had Barn Spoons words ringing in my head: ”I´m a massive cynic, but I believe in spoons”. Barn Spoon is a spooncarver from England that set up a shop in London where he sells spoons. The idea strikes me as bold, but on the other hand it is ingeniously simple and obvious. And I can´t let go of the idea to set up a shop in Stockholm.

Uladzimir, a great reunion. Me, demonstrating spooncarving to Wille and Jögge.

Robin Wood teaching, his daughter JoJo supervising.

Magnus Sundelin (left), blacksmith and carver let me try some of his great carvingtools.
Anders Lindberg (right) a long time green woodworker with lots of ideas.

Jarrod Stone Dahl in action.

Fritiof Runhall (left) and a girl that has made interior for Konstfack workshops. She carved her first spoon(s) at Täljfest. Börje Ax (right) who took bentwood to Slovakia.

A few days ago I broke the blade on my carvingknife during a trip to the forest. When I got home I decided to put in a new blade, like it was common to do on old knives. As I started to drill out the riveted blade I tried to remember if I had used any epoxy when I put it together. But the parts came off nicely.

I have never had to change the blade on a knife before. The work gave many interesting thoughts about the old school craft. When I started to make my knives more and more in a traditional way I have discovered that all the parts have their function in the design. It is not just decoration like some people seem to think.

Obviously it is very practical, once you break the blade, to have a full tange. And the fittings are a part of that design.

But another example is the sheath. It is very hard to make a good, tight sheath if you have a leather that is tanned all the way through. Like the kind of leather that you use in shoes. I think that they often made their leather at home a few hundred years ago. And I don´t think they used the special leather with the raw hide still left in the middle in the same degree that knifemakers do today. So you need at least one fitting at the top of the sheath. If you also have the fittings at the bottom and the sides, the sheath is much more stable.

The disassembled knife with the new blade att the bottom.

I can see why the blade broke. There was a crack in the metal.

The knife with the new blade. I could not use the blade shown in the first picture after all, but had to go for this instead. A laminated blade by Mattias Styrefors.

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ahardslojdlife, the concept and the site, was started in 2000 by Niklas Karlsson.
The aim is to show 1: the context and 2: the hard existence, working with traditional use of wood. I call it traditional use of wood. Meaning using ”old fashion” workprocesses – it´s not about copying objects from a certain time or place.